1. The Bends - Radiohead. I know other people like OK Computer more, but I absolutely love the soundscape of this record. It really feels like its own world.
Fave line: "She looks like the real thing. She tastes like the real thing."
2. Whatever People Say I Am That's What I'm Not - Arctic Monkeys. I love the cleverness of the lyrics, and it makes me want to jump around. There is not a song on this album that I do not adore vigorously. They're second album is also amazing.
2. Whatever People Say I Am That's What I'm Not - Arctic Monkeys. I love the cleverness of the lyrics, and it makes me want to jump around. There is not a song on this album that I do not adore vigorously. They're second album is also amazing.
Fave line: "You can pour your heart out around 3 o'clock, when the 2 for 1's undone the writer's block."
Honorable mention: "I see your frown and it's like looking down the barrel of a gun."
3. With Teeth - Nine Inch Nails. I had a really hard time with this one. I wanted to choose a NIN album and I know Pretty Hate Machine so well, I can sing it to myself, I don't even need to hear it anymore. This album is newer and a little less known to me. But I figure I'll want a couple of lesser-known CDs in with my old favorites. It's a sometimes angry record and it came out when I was particularly pissed off.
3. With Teeth - Nine Inch Nails. I had a really hard time with this one. I wanted to choose a NIN album and I know Pretty Hate Machine so well, I can sing it to myself, I don't even need to hear it anymore. This album is newer and a little less known to me. But I figure I'll want a couple of lesser-known CDs in with my old favorites. It's a sometimes angry record and it came out when I was particularly pissed off.
Fave line: "I just made you up to hurt myself. And it worked. Yes it did. There is no you, there is only me."
4. So Much for the Afterglow - Everclear. This is the soundtrack to the wildest year of my life. It was also the mental soundtrack to my first novel. If I wanted to get back into writing it after a while away, I'd listen to the first couple of songs and be right back there in the thick of it.
5. Velvet Goldmine Soundtrack - Various. A great collection of songs by fantastic artists including Craig Wedren (of Shudder to Think), Grant Lee Buffalo, and Thom Yorke.
4. So Much for the Afterglow - Everclear. This is the soundtrack to the wildest year of my life. It was also the mental soundtrack to my first novel. If I wanted to get back into writing it after a while away, I'd listen to the first couple of songs and be right back there in the thick of it.
Fave line: "They can't hurt you unless you let them."
Honorable mention: "She's perfect in that F&@$d up way that all the magazines seem to want to glorify these days."
5. Velvet Goldmine Soundtrack - Various. A great collection of songs by fantastic artists including Craig Wedren (of Shudder to Think), Grant Lee Buffalo, and Thom Yorke.
Fave line: "We'll take the whole shebang--all or nothing, any day. Ecstasy's the birthright of our gang. We'll take the whole shebang. Free your heart of guilt and shame. Come and take what's yours: the whole shebang."
6. Pony Express Record - Shudder to Think. Keeps you off balance the whole time. Unexpected time shifts and turns of phrase make this a record that keeps you guessing. One of the two albums on this list I heard about because of my ex-boyfriend, Ed.
6. Pony Express Record - Shudder to Think. Keeps you off balance the whole time. Unexpected time shifts and turns of phrase make this a record that keeps you guessing. One of the two albums on this list I heard about because of my ex-boyfriend, Ed.
Fave line: "The Truth, it wears sharp clothes, and ooh, you cannot undress it."
7. Punk in Drublic - NOFX. This is the other record from the Ed years. This is a really tight collection of songs. Brilliantly played and sometimes hilariously funny.
7. Punk in Drublic - NOFX. This is the other record from the Ed years. This is a really tight collection of songs. Brilliantly played and sometimes hilariously funny.
Fave line: "Got a face like Charles Bronson. Straight outta Green Bay, Wisconsin."
8. One Fierce Beer Coaster - The Bloodhound Gang. One of the funniest albums ever recorded, and what makes it even awesomer is that the musicianship is really tight.
8. One Fierce Beer Coaster - The Bloodhound Gang. One of the funniest albums ever recorded, and what makes it even awesomer is that the musicianship is really tight.
Fave line: "Life's short, but hard. Like a body-building elf."
9. Frankenstein Girls Will Seem Strangely Sexy - Mindless Self Indulgence. This album is pure energy. Another pissed off record that came into my life--via my now roommate--when I was really angry at stuff. I remember listening to this and saying, "Oh yeah, this record gets where I'm at right now."
9. Frankenstein Girls Will Seem Strangely Sexy - Mindless Self Indulgence. This album is pure energy. Another pissed off record that came into my life--via my now roommate--when I was really angry at stuff. I remember listening to this and saying, "Oh yeah, this record gets where I'm at right now."
Fave line: "I could've been someone instead of falling flat upon my ass."
Honorable mention: "I'm a badass. Tell me I'm a badass."
10. A Rush of Blood to the Head - Coldplay. I know there are people out there who have no love for Coldplay. I don't care what y'all say, this album is beautiful. When I first heard it--around the beginning of 2002--I was still in grad school, but starting research on my dissertation. I was also getting very heavily into Harry Potter. It was a unique time. I felt on the verge of something spectacular, and this album perfectly captured that "butterflies" feeling that I seemed to experience all the time.
Fave line: "Questions of science, science and progress, did not speak as loud as my heart."
